What Is This Movie & Why Is Conan O'Brien In It?

With all of the hullabaloo surrounding Rob Lowe's Shark Week promo and the premiere of the infamous and much-anticipated Sharknado 2: The Second One , a little piece of work titled Sharktopus vs. Pteracuda almost managed to slip through the salty cracks of the ocean. That's right, folks — another Sharktopus was graciously made just for our viewing pleasure, and come Aug. 2, SyFy will air its new original sharktastic creation.

For those of you who never had the chance to sit down and watch Sharktopus, the film follows a half-shark, half-octopus (duh) created for the military that goes completely AWOL. Terror ensues and the scientist who had a hand in creating the beast, Dr. Nathan Sands (played by Eric Roberts), must attempt to capture and kill it. And because Sharktopus didn't satiate our appetites for shark-monster films — will our appetites every be truly satiated? — producer Roger Corman thought he'd try again for round two. What's resulted is another shark-monster film, only this time the stars of the show will be sharktopus and pteracuda — a creation that is half-pterodactyl and half-barracuda — and, you know, actual humans such as Robert Carradine (Lizzie McGuire's dad, everyone). Plot-wise, although we can assume that Carradine will have a substantial role in the film, it seems like the main storyline is that the two beasts will be fighting each other (because of course). Check out the trailer that tells us absolutely nothing about the film except for the fact that there will be a sharktopus and a pteracuda in it.

If none of the plotlines or general shark shenanigans have hooked you yet, then this spoiler might have you making official plans to veg-out on your couch while you watch the flick: Conan O'Brien has a cameo in the film. Yeah, you read that correctly. According to the clip that O'Brien showed on Conan, we can all look forward to a riveting and ridiculous performance by the comedian as he gets his head chomped off by none other than the sharktopus. But don't worry, he totally deserved it — his martini-sipping, ascot-wearing character is a total jerk.

The fact that O'Brien is in this film, and that he took the time out of his show to talk about his Oscar-worthy role, means that we have all been given permission to completely mock this film (not like we weren't all going to anyway). Shark movies have officially become something for studios to make money off of and for bored Sci-Fi fans to make fun of. And guess what? We're totally okay with that. This just all means that we can prepare ourselves for the third movie in the series: Sharktopus vs. Mermantula. Get ready, everyone, a mermantula — wow, a half-merman, half-tarantula might just be the grossest thing ever — is coming for us. (We're not even joking, that's an actual thing that's happening.)

Sharktopus vs. Pteracuda premieres on SyFy at 9 p.m. on Aug. 2.

Image: New Horizons Pictures/Syfy